Sports Briefs

AGENCIES

■ Rugby League

Former player dies in cave-in

Former New Zealand rugby league international Bernard Green died in a cave-in at a coal mine on New Zealand's South Island, mine owners said yesterday. Green, 47, was killed on Friday when a shaft of the privately-owned Roa mine, 800m below ground, collapsed. Nine other men working in the shaft escaped without injury. Green toured Britain and France with the New Zealand team in 1980, scoring two tries.

■ Basketball

Gasol out for four months

Spanish center Pau Gasol is not expected to return to the NBA until January after successful surgery on his left foot on Friday, the Memphis Grizzlies announced. Gasol underwent the operation to repair a broken fifth metatarsal. Grizzlies team doctor Fred Azar, assisted by foot specialists, performed the surgery and gave the prognosis, which will mean Gasol will be out for about the first two months of the upcoming NBA season. "We inserted a 45mm screw and bone graphs into the fifth metatarsal. Pau will wear a cast for two weeks while his foot heals and then begin the rehabilitation process. His expected return to play is approximately four months," Azar said.

■ Soccer

Vietnamese players charged

Vietnamese police have charged eight players, including seven internationals, in connection with match-fixing at last year's Southeast Asian Games, the Thanh Nien daily reported yesterday. The paper quoted a source saying the players would face trial for their part in rigging a game against Myanmar in Manila last December. Internationals Bat Hieu, Van Truong, Quoc Vuong, Van Quyen, Hai Lam, Phuoc Vinh and Quoc Anh, and former player Truong Tan Hai will be charged with betting and organized gambling, the daily said. The players were allegedly paid 500 million dong (US$31,000) each to fix the game, and are believed to have used their money to place bets on their team beating Myanmar 1-0.

■ Auto Racing

State funeral for Brock

Peter Brock, who dominated Australian auto racing for three decades and was one of its most popular drivers, will have a state funeral at a date to be determined, his family said yesterday. Brock, 61, died on Friday when his car crashed into a tree during the Targa West Rally in Western Australia state. Brock's former wife, Bev Brock, who split with the former touring car driver in May last year after 28 years together, said the decision to accept the formal state funeral, likely in Melbourne, was made by the couple's three children. "Their dad was loved. He was in the public eye, and everything had to be done with a flourish and with a bang," she said. Witnesses told reporters that Brock's car hit a tree near the small town of Gidgegannup, about 40km north of Perth.

■ Cycling

Ullrich prosecutors seek help

The Bonn district attorney's office has asked Spanish police for help in its investigation of alleged doping by former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich. Chief district attorney Fred Apostel said on Friday his office was looking into whether the German cyclist had been provided with banned performance-enhancing drugs since 2003 -- in an operation allegedly centered on Spanish sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Fuentes is under investigation following Spanish police's arrest of five people at a Madrid clinic in May, where drugs and frozen blood were seized.